After leaving Destiny 2, the Darkness has found a new place to settle – Bungie’s Marathon. Starting next week, Dire Marsh will have a nighttime variant, and if the cinematic trailer gave you horror vibes, then that’s exactly what the team is going for.
In a new blog post, it noted that Night Marsh is “built to be slower-paced than Day Marsh and plays more like a survival horror experience, with slightly fewer players and extra environmental challenges with navigating the darkness and threats within.”
The first and most obvious challenge is the lack of visibility. The new Flashlights, Vector Rounds, which leave pools of light on impact (and even illuminate enemies) and Vector Grenades for pinging nearby threats help in that regard. You also get Darksight scopes, which will briefly highlight the world when aiming down sights. It creates a real sense of tension, as you stop to survey your surroundings, keep moving, and repeat.
And if all that fails, Signal Flares are on hand. They’ll alert others to your location, but in terms of lighting up the sky, there are few better options.
Bungie has spoken quite a bit about increased security from the UESC, but what does that mean? Simply put, you’ll need to kill bots to obtain Certs, which can hack into Network Towers for the loot within. But they’re also used for activating exfiltration, so be careful not to let hubris and greed be your own demise.
As for those strange creatures that have seemingly been running around…well, if you’re feeling lucky, take those Certs to Complex Control’s upper floors, open the doors and find out first-hand. Survive, and you just might earn some “powerful loot.”
Of course, to ensure the player base isn’t split much between the new Duos queue and upcoming experimental PvE modes, Bungie will cycle the day and night versions of Dire Marsh every 90 minutes. The first week of the season, which is also when Marathon will be free to play across all platforms, will see both available round the clock. As for Contracts, keep an eye out for MIDA and Traxus – they may have some tasks that require braving the dark.
Marathon Season 2: NIGHTFALL kicks off on June 2nd. Stay tuned for more details and insights from the development team in the meantime.
